


never is an awfully long time

by mollivanders



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Post-Series, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-11
Updated: 2012-06-11
Packaged: 2017-11-07 11:47:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/430810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollivanders/pseuds/mollivanders
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At first Katniss thinks: <i>good for him then</i>. Leaving like that. Maybe it’s for the best. She sleeps easier for it, lets him slip from her mind the way he never would if he was standing right in front of her, dark grey eyes and darker grin tempting her away from her new, neat little life.</p><p>But things aren’t perfect. Peeta – he’s still recovering. Still sees her differently, not the way he used to, and days come where Katniss gets away from the house, slips through the fence and runs to the woods outside of District 12.</p>
            </blockquote>





	never is an awfully long time

**Author's Note:**

> **Title: never is an awfully long time**  
>  Fandom: The Hunger Games  
> Rating: G  
> Characters: Gale/Katniss  
> Author's Note: Word Count - 1,741. Written for . Spoilers through _Mockingjay_ but AU from the epilogue.  
>  Disclaimer: I own nothing.

At first Katniss thinks: _good for him then_. Leaving like that. Maybe it’s for the best. She sleeps easier for it, lets him slip from her mind the way he never would if he was standing right in front of her, dark grey eyes and darker grin tempting her away from her new, neat little life.

But things aren’t perfect. Peeta – he’s still recovering. Still sees her differently, not the way he used to, and days come where Katniss gets away from the house, slips through the fence and runs to the woods outside of District 12.

It’s just like the old days, except it’s harder to go back when she’s the only one leaving. The woods never seemed so quiet, so menacing behind her.

Some days she finds herself at their old meeting spot and waits there, watches the sun go down with the stone warming her back. Hears him in her mind and feels a chill that has nothing to do with the evening.

_We could do it you know, take off, live in the woods._

The thing is: Peeta asks so many questions. Real or not real? Stay or leave? Bake or hunt? Kids or no kids?

(She doesn’t have all the answers he wants her to.)

It’s not all bad though, not even mostly, and Katniss learns to ignore the itch to go wander without him more and more. She feels practically normal once she’s in the house, and she can’t find the time to get caught up in memories. There’s no way to reach him, especially not in the house – not by phone, not by letter. Even if she knew where to reach, she doubts he’d be waiting for her. Doubts whether he even wants to hear from her.

(He did leave without saying goodbye.)

So she tries to fill up the spaces, tells herself it’ll be alright. It _is_ alright. She must carry an edge to her though, one that spreads like a disease through the too-big house, because Peeta learns to stop asking her so many questions; reduces his thoughts to _real_ or _not real_ and Katniss – 

Well, she’s always been good at adapting to her surroundings.

When a year goes by, and then two, Katniss thinks she’ll never hear from Gale – that he’s gone for good. Then she realizes something else. She’s late.

(Very late.)

She rushes to the fence in the summer heat, heart racing as she reaches for her old bow, and doesn't stop running until she reaches the forest, feet hitting the river with a splash and it hits her how very, very far away Gale is.

How very alone she is.

She stays in the woods that night, back curled against a tree and eyes staring deep into the thicket before her, counting her heartbeats and praying for a miracle. 

(Not real, she decides.)

It’s morning by the time she crosses her own threshold and finds Peeta making coffee. He doesn’t seem surprised to see her come in from the woods, covered in twigs and dirt, but he does seem surprised at the bow in her hand. She hadn’t left it.

She’s not going back.

“Catch anything?” he asks, and Katniss swallows hard. The smell of coffee is strong, and it makes her stomach turn, but there’s nothing to throw up. She waits until he turns to face her, her nonresponse getting his attention, and takes a deep breath.

“Not real, Peeta,” she says, very quiet. “I’m going, today.”

He doesn’t ask where, and she doesn’t wait for his reaction.

(Her debt here is settled.)

+

The bag she takes with her is light, filled only with essentials and the family cookbook. There’s nothing more from District 12 she’d want, after all, and catching the first train west fills her with determination. Four days to get there, four days to form a plan.

She hadn’t counted on all the stares, the whispers as people talked amongst themselves about the girl on fire, dirty and smudged and carrying a weapon. Alone, without her star-crossed lover. She tries to tune them out, tries to sleep and not think further than four days ahead.

Maybe he hates her. Maybe this is stupid and she should go somewhere else. Visit District 4, and see the ocean. See Annie and her little boy, and live by the sea. She’s halfway through the fantasy when she realizes she’s inserted him there, cooking deer on a spit and showing the little boy how to set a trap.

When she steps off the train, battered and tired and numb inside, she realizes something very important.

It doesn’t matter what happened. Not anymore.

She knows he knows she’s here; how could he not? The world is abuzz with it and there’s even a news rag with her on the cover, asleep on the train. The paper speculates about where she’s headed and what happened to Peeta. It suggests she’s trying to smuggle President Snow out of jail, and Katniss smiles grimly. They’ve always thought what they’ve wanted; at least that hasn’t changed.

But when she asks people about Gale Hawthorne, and where he lives, nobody acts surprised. Not here. Not people who’ve known Gale, people who met her during the war. His neighbors seem wary of him, but they point her to his house, and since it’s nearly end of the day at the mines, Katniss drops her bag and leans against the wall, her head pounding under the summer sun and legs shaky, rehearsing and re-rehearsing her speech. When she hears the crunch of boots on gravel, her eyes snap open.

Dark hair, grey eyes, and still hers. She’s sure. Whatever changed, she knows that cannot be part of it.

“Catnip?” he asks, surprised despite it all, and she laughs dryly at the old name, pushes herself straight and takes a step forward. He tries again. “They said – but –”

All her speeches fall away.

“You didn’t say goodbye,” she says, and sees his shoulders fall with relief.

His house is small, nothing like hers back in Victor’s Village – more like the ones they both grew up in. The walls are wooden, and there’s no furniture aside from a dining table and a bed in the corner. The washroom is behind the house, and when he takes her bag, she asks if she can wash up outside first.

(The walls scream that he lives alone and Katniss – well, she’s not unhappy right now.)

Gale doesn’t ask questions, though he must have a thousand, and leaves her with towels and soap. The grime of travel comes off easy, and Katniss laughs when she realizes she hasn’t showered since she first ran out to the woods, five days ago. The laugh turns into a sob, but just when she leans against the shower wall, the hot water runs out and she curses, rinsing off quickly and grabbing for her towel. The fresh clothes feel good on her skin, and when she gets back to the house, there’s soup on the table.

His eyes are on her like irons while they wolf down supper in silence, but once she sets her spoon down, Gale clears his throat with meaning.

“You going to tell me why you’re really here?” he asks, leaning forward, and when Katniss fiddles with her dishes, he stands with a sigh. Startled, she catches at his hand.

“I’m serious,” she says. “You left without a goodbye. And it wasn’t right.”

“That about sums it up,” Gale says, another, familiar edge to his voice, but it – of all things – feels more natural to her than the cozy life back in District 12. And it wasn’t right, for either of them.

“I couldn’t stay, Gale,” she says, and he sits again, pulling his chair closer to hers. “I don’t know what I’m doing, but I couldn’t do it there.”

“Okay,” he says quietly, and wraps his other hand around hers. “Okay.”

+

A call to Annie settles it, and Gale sells the house a week after Katniss stops throwing up every morning. She feels the need to hide, to go undercover, but Gale points out it won’t make a difference – there are eyes everywhere, and the best thing is just to move on.

When they get to District 4, Annie’s waiting for them at the train depot and embraces Katniss the moment she steps down. Her arms are tight and warm and Katniss sinks into them, just for a moment, before a little boy, the image of Finnick, tugs at Katniss’ dress and stares at her with solemn eyes.

“Do you have candy?” he asks, and Gale laughs next to her.

(Real.)

Annie takes them to her house, by the sea, just like Katniss imagined, and Gale talks about getting a house down the street. There’s plenty of work here, and Gale and Katniss learn fast, so they four settle down, waiting. The unfamiliar seasons pass quickly, and the scrabbly woods are not the deep forests of District 12, but Katniss still meets Gale there. They tread new paths and she tests her new crossbow while he builds old traps.

(When she comes, they name her after her aunt, and call her Rose.)

The sitting room in the new house looks out over the falling hills, towards the thin woods, and Katniss finds herself staring out at the openness of it all, Rose warm in her arms while Gale settles them in. It’s not much – it’s small – but the light and the space make it easy to breathe.

The day after Gale and Katniss move, Annie tells them to meet her at the beach after work. When they find Annie, there’s a quiet fire burning and the rabbits Gale trapped for Annie the day before. Finnick’s son is racing circles around the fire, but when Gale and Katniss approach with Rose he stares at her with his big, green eyes. He is not quite three, but Gale helps him hold her.

It is Annie who takes Katniss’ hand and leads her to the tidal sea. With the waves lapping at their feet, and the dying sun in their eyes, Annie asks if there is anything more Katniss wants. The salt air fills her lungs, foreign and strange almost a year later, and Rose’s gurgle mixes with Gale’s voice behind them. Leaning against Annie, who did this as Katniss had, and more, she pauses.

“To stay,” she says, and leads them back to the fire.

_Finis_


End file.
